Veterans Fire Corps

Veterans Fire Corps (US Military Veterans Only)

Created in 2010 in cooperation with the US Forest Service and expanded into an AmeriCorps program in 2012, the Veterans Fire Corps trains and engages teams of military veterans in wildland ﬁre mitigation. Projects include fuels reduction, ﬁre effects monitoring, educational outreach, pre-ﬁre preparation of burn units, and participation in prescribed ﬁres. SCA’s Veterans Fire Corps members work together for 13 weeks, organized in teams of ﬁve Corps Members and one Project Leader. The leader is most often a graduate of a prior Veterans Fire Corps program who has proven to be a capable ﬁreﬁghter, manager, and logistician.

The training provided to participants has three components: training as an SCA Corps member, Wildland ﬁre and chainsaw training, as well as ﬁeld-based practical experience. Each training component builds on the prior training, focusing not only on technical aspects, but also on softer skills such as leadership, group dynamics, and conﬂict management. When not working on fuels mitigation, members may work with various federal agency staff in other areas, such as trails, archeology, ﬁsheries, or other projects. Members receive weekly living allowances. Housing and ﬁeld-based meals are provided, but positions may require camping in the ﬁeld for a signiﬁcant portion of the program.

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This week started off slow, with us continueing to work on computer classes, after we tried to make it out to the Carter Road Project but instead found it inaccessibly due to the forest service roads not being cleared from the snow, We decided it best just to return back to Rapid City. We were quickly put to us by the apartment complex though in helping to shovel tenants and vehicles that got stuck into the drive ways out.

This week we ﬁnally tied back in with the Forest Service and immediately started to make an impression that we were there to learn and to work. Adam met with a high ranking oﬃcial from Rapid City Fire and has already arranged a time to do a shadowing opportunity with the city, so he can learn more about how cities prepare and handle the added obligation of wildﬁres, and doing wildland urban interface work on top of the ems and structure ﬁre calls they recieve.

This week we ﬁnished up with S212 (wildland ﬁre chainsaws), and started right into wilderness ﬁrst aid, taught to us by the Aeris instructors who managed to make it down to us even with Boulder and Denver being ﬂooded. Here we learnt a lot about patient assessment, and basic treatment, as well as a few carries, with lots of practical application.

On week one the team all met up for the ﬁrst time in Rapid City, South Dakota, Quickly our military experiences were brought up, and people started to learn more about each other. We learnt that corpsmember Brock had helped lead dozer in wildﬁre operations while as a combat engineer at Camp Pendleton. or how Mike used to be a radio host right over the state line in Gillette, Wyoming.

The Yarnell Fire was a wildﬁre near Yarnell, AZ ignited by lightning on June 28, 2013. On June 30, it overran and killed 19 ﬁreﬁghters with the Prescott Fire Department’s interagency Granite Mountain Hotshots.

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Your child is about to embark on a life-changing experience, where they will have the opportunity to meet new friends, explore potential careers, gain leadership skills, and accomplish hands-on conservation work that will have a lasting impact on the planet.